Telugu Skies Busy as Election Campaign Enters Last Lap

Hyderabad: In its last lap of election campaigning, the two Telugu states are witnessing heavy traffic over the skies.

Aviation officials have noted that while in Telangana the campaigning is much relaxed as there are only 17 Lok Sabha seats in fray, its neighbour Andhra Pradesh is facing heavy rush due to simultaneous assembly and parliamentary polls.

A senior official told a national daily that in Telangana, Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu has leased an eight-seater AgustaWestland AW 169 helicopter till April 9. The opposition Congress and the BJP have not leased any chopper for a fixed period and are using them on an ad-hoc basis.

Party heavyweights like Rahul Gandhi, Sushma Swaraj, Prakash Javadekar and Amit Shah are supposed to tour the state, according to the official.

Meanwhile, in AP, with simultaneous elections, the logbook is busier.

Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has alone hired two choppers and two fixed wings. The choppers are reportedly five-seater or above and the aircrafts are eight-nine seater.

Naidu's main opposition - YRSCP chief Jaganmohan Reddy and Jana Sena Party Pawan Kalyan have leased a helicopter and aircraft each.

Talking about the cost of the helicopters, it usually ranges between Rs 2-2.5 lakh an hour. In the election season, the charges double.

For the planes that cost about Rs 4 lakh per hour costs a whopping Rs 6 lakh during the election time, the official said.

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